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Surprise: Hispanics already embrace many tea party beliefs, members told

By Jack Minor –

Members attending the South Carolina Tea Party’s annual convention were told that contrary to popular belief, Hispanics do want to embrace socialism and the failed liberal policies they left behind in their home countries and are ready to embrace conservative values but it is up to the tea party to educate them.

The South Carolina Tea Party is streaming its annual convention in both English and Spanish. On the first day of their three day convention in Myrtle Beach they heard from a trio of Hispanic speakers who sounded a warning that while the Republican party is right about its need to reach out to Hispanics, the solution is not to embrace liberal ideas such as amnesty but to instead boldly stand for conservative values, which they say large numbers of Hispanics actually embrace.

Exit polling consistently shows that the Hispanic vote consistently goes to the Democratic Party. This data is frequently used by Republican leaders such as Karl Rove and others to claim the party needs abandon its opposition to immigration reform and other social issues if they ever hope to capture this key demographic. Last year, during the debate in the Senate over the comprehensive immigration bill, Sen. John McCain suggested that if Republicans would pass the bill then eventually Hispanics would reward them for it.

However, Dr. Juan Torres, Director of the Bear Witness Council acknowledged that while Hispanics do vote Democrat in elections, the reasons have nothing to with Republican’s stance on conservative issues but is rather a failure of tea party and conservatives to actively educate Hispanics and Latinos about what they actually stand for.

“We don’t have media representation, everyone knows that and when you go to the Hispanic media it’s even worse,” Torres said. “It’s time to change the way we do politics. We cannot give these people [the media] what they want in order to continue winning elections. It is very important that you remember that they don’t want you to reach Hispanics. They don’t want you to educate Hispanics.”

He noted that rather than embrace liberal ideas, Republicans need to educate Hispanics that the unemployment rate for them is over 10 percent and let them know about other things President Obama has done to take away our freedoms and push the country in a more socialistic direction.

“There are more than 50 million Americans in the United States and the number is going to get bigger and bigger. It’s time for you to realize that we need to do something about it, otherwise things will get worse and worse,” Torres said. “In Colorado 80 to 90 percent of the Hispanic vote went for President Obama. That is something that has never happened before.”

I am unemployed after 45 years of working my husband is a Disabled Veteran. We both have always been tax payers, active voters and involved in politics. It is time for us to vote Republicans out of office who are against all of us. Republicans voted against unemployment extension and veterans bill. Using veterans and hard working people who are now unemployed for their personal agendas is a slap in all of our faces, Time for us to stand up and VOTE Republicans out of office!